Today: A report from The Information contends eBay is telling some PayPal job candidates that he company may be spun off, pushing stock higher. Also: Earnings reports from Silicon Valley software companies Salesforce and Intuit.

The Lead: eBay now considering spinning off PayPal, report says

Just a few months after fending off activist investor Carl Icahn's aggressive call to spin off PayPal, eBay is bringing up the idea in interviews with candidates for the top job at its payments company, according to a Thursday report.

After nearly three months of acrimonious public exchanges between eBay and Icahn, the two sides settled their differences, with eBay nominating an Icahn-approved board member and Icahn agreeing to drop his proposal to split off PayPal.

Even at that time, however, not everyone believed the issue had been put to rest.

"The board will continue to assess all alternatives to create that long term (shareholder) value and to enhance the growth and competitive positions of both eBay and PayPal," spokeswoman Amanda Miller said in an email. "This position has not changed."

Overall, eBay is the seventh-largest technology company in Silicon Valley in terms of revenues, racking up sales of $16.05 billion in 2013. PayPal accounted for $6.1 billion of those revenues, which would have made it the 16th largest valley tech firm on its own, ahead of such stalwarts as Yahoo and Adobe. In the first half of 2014, PayPal brought in $3.79 billion in revenues, 43.9 percent of eBay's total.

SV150 market report: Salesforce, Intuit release earnings reports

eBay's gains helped Silicon Valley tech stocks outpace a small advance from the larger market, but shares in two large Bay Area software companies headed in opposite directions following their earnings reports Thursday afternoon.

Cloud-software pioneer Salesforce again showed off booming revenues and big losses, and satisfied investors by increasing its projected sales total for the entire year. The San Francisco company revealed a net loss of $61.1 million, or 10 cents a share, on revenues of $1.3 billion, falling from rare profits in the same period a year ago but increasing sales 37.8 percent. Shares gained to near $56 in late trading after closing with a 0.6 percent increase at $55.71. Intuit headed the opposite way after the Santa Clara software company reported a wide net loss as it looks to switch to the cloud platform Salesforce has helped to popularize. Intuit reported a loss of $73 million, or 14 cents a share, on sales of $714 million, and predicted that it will see revenues decline in the just-begun fiscal year due to its cloud transition. Intuit stock fell to less than $85 in after-hours action after closing with a 0.6 percent advance at $85.81.